Posted on Sep 15, 2023
Gael García Bernal crushes it (and others) as 'Cassandro,' lucha libre's queer pioneer
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https://www.npr.org/2023/09/15/ [login to see] /cassandro-review-luchador-lucha-libre-gael-garcia-bernal
"If you, like me, know little about the gaudily theatrical style of professional wrestling known as lucha libre, the new movie Cassandro offers a vivid crash course — emphasis on the crash.
It begins in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juárez, where hulking wrestlers, or luchadores, clobber each other in the ring. They sport bright-colored masks, skin-tight costumes and menacing monikers like "the Executioner of Tijuana." They smash each other over the head with chairs or guitars while onlookers cheer and jeer from the sidelines. The outcome may be predetermined, but there's still real drama in this mix of brutal sport and choreographed ballet".
"If you, like me, know little about the gaudily theatrical style of professional wrestling known as lucha libre, the new movie Cassandro offers a vivid crash course — emphasis on the crash.
It begins in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juárez, where hulking wrestlers, or luchadores, clobber each other in the ring. They sport bright-colored masks, skin-tight costumes and menacing monikers like "the Executioner of Tijuana." They smash each other over the head with chairs or guitars while onlookers cheer and jeer from the sidelines. The outcome may be predetermined, but there's still real drama in this mix of brutal sport and choreographed ballet".
Gael García Bernal crushes it (and others) as 'Cassandro,' lucha libre's queer pioneer
Posted from npr.org
Wrestling
LGBTQ+
Mexico
El Paso
Posted 8 mo ago
Responses: 1
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2
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."The director Roger Ross Williams, who wrote the script with David Teague, directs even the bloodier wrestling scenes with an elegance that makes us aware of the artifice; this isn't exactly the Raging Bull of lucha libre movies, and it isn't trying to be. The wrestling itself feels a little sanitized compared with the documentary, which showed many of Saúl's gruesome injuries in the ring, several of which required surgery. Overall, Williams' movie is stronger on texture than narrative drive; Cassandro experiences various setbacks and defeats, plus one devastating loss, but the drama never really builds to the expected knockout climax.
That's not such a bad thing. Williams clearly wants to celebrate his subject as a groundbreaking figure in lucha libre culture, and he has little interest in embellishing for dramatic effect. With a lead as strong as the one he has here, there's no need. Bernal has always been a wonderful actor, so it's saying a lot that this performance ranks among his best. Beyond his remarkable athleticism and physical grace, it's joyous to see Saúl, a gay man already so at ease with who he is, tap into a part of himself that he didn't realize existed. He takes an invented persona and transforms it into something powerfully real."
..."The director Roger Ross Williams, who wrote the script with David Teague, directs even the bloodier wrestling scenes with an elegance that makes us aware of the artifice; this isn't exactly the Raging Bull of lucha libre movies, and it isn't trying to be. The wrestling itself feels a little sanitized compared with the documentary, which showed many of Saúl's gruesome injuries in the ring, several of which required surgery. Overall, Williams' movie is stronger on texture than narrative drive; Cassandro experiences various setbacks and defeats, plus one devastating loss, but the drama never really builds to the expected knockout climax.
That's not such a bad thing. Williams clearly wants to celebrate his subject as a groundbreaking figure in lucha libre culture, and he has little interest in embellishing for dramatic effect. With a lead as strong as the one he has here, there's no need. Bernal has always been a wonderful actor, so it's saying a lot that this performance ranks among his best. Beyond his remarkable athleticism and physical grace, it's joyous to see Saúl, a gay man already so at ease with who he is, tap into a part of himself that he didn't realize existed. He takes an invented persona and transforms it into something powerfully real."
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